Reclaiming Our Humanity in a Digital Age

a celebration of a fleshy, decidedly human experience

‘Great work. Too bad it could be made on a printer in less than 15 seconds.’

This was a comment on the socials of UK printmaker, Aga Kubish, whose feed I was admiring over my morning coffee.

This MASSIVE linocut is over 3 feet tall - printed entirely by hand - no press!

Predictably, the comment thread immediately wound its way to assertions that AI and computers are taking over the world, no one wants this kind of work, no one cares - why waste your time?

I had exactly the opposite reaction to the mob of nay-sayers.

Instead of coming to the conclusion that this type of endeavour ISN’T worthwhile given our fast-paced, mechanized, digitized, divorced-from-reality world . . .

My gut reaction was:

YES! That is precisely why this work type of work is essential.

It got me thinking about what it means to be human in an increasingly digitized world.

Artificial intelligence creates reams of content for social media and the web, to be consumed by and argued over by an ocean of bots . . .

This technology could be used to change the world. Instead, it churns out mountains of spam and births an army of trolls.

I can’t help but wonder - what on earth is the point?

I think, maybe, we are asking entirely the wrong questions. Maybe, looking to Silicon Valley and venture capitalists and those steeped in the paradigm that has created this beast, isn’t the right tac.

Maybe we need a different perspective to get from where we are to where we might like to go?